Well it's finally official. The bad news is that it doesn't seem to have a cure. Unfortunately, Sodium Benzoate is prevalent all through the food and "entertainment" food and drink industries. Turns out that what was considered a product that was safe and left our bodies within 4-6 hours, leaves behind some potential nasty damage- on the bio-molecular level. And here we are giving it to children. Start the damage when they're young and they get problems developing, which could pop up at any time in their lives.

"These chemicals have the ability to cause severe damage to DNA in the mitochondria to the point that they totally inactivate it: they knock it out altogether," Prof Piper told The Independent on Sunday.

The findings came from laboratory tests conducted with sodium benzoate on living yeast cells. Prof Piper was alarmed by the chemical's destructive impact on the "power station" of the cells known as the mitochondria.

"The mitochondria consumes the oxygen to give you energy and if you damage it — as happens in a number [o]f diseased states — then the cell starts to malfunction very seriously," Prof Piper continued.

"There is a whole array of diseases that are now being tied to damage to this DNA — Parkinson's and quite a lot of neuro-degenerative diseases, but above all the whole process of ageing."

Piper has done 8 years research on this and arrived at these conclusions.

It 's found in all kinds of products- you can google and be amazed. Bottom line- don't feed your kids lots of pop or processed foods- check if it's used in the pop and foods you buy. The net has sites listing most ingredients.

Benzene is formed by a reaction of two soft drink ingredients -- ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and either sodium or potassium benzoate.